Californians Sue Microsoft Over Xbox 360 Flaw

Here in California we will sue at the drop of a hat. So it comes at no surprise that a group of disgruntled consumers have filed a class action suit against Microsoft over what is being called an abnormally large number of "General Hardware Failures" (also known as the Red Ring of Death due to the three flashing red lights around the power button) in the Xbox 360.

The lawsuit filed on September 19 by Reshelle Cable of Folsom, Calif., alleges that an abnormally large number of the consoles have suffered from the flaw, and that Microsoft new about the issue but concealed it, in order to better compete with the rival gaming consoles such as the Sony Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii.

As evidence, the lawsuit presents articles from a variety of gaming publications, including dailygamesnews.com, VentureBeat, Digital Media and Yahoo! Each of these articles states that Microsoft knew as far back as November 2005 that over 50% of Xbox 360 consoles were defective (emphasis added because that's an insane number in an industry where 3% or so is the accepted norm).

The objective of the lawsuit is to obtain an order forcing Microsoft to pay the affected Xbox 360 owners with all profits made from the console by publicly announcing and implementing a refund program in the state of California.